I forgot I wrote this, I wasn't going to post it at first, since I'm still working on chapters for my other fics and some of the stuff in this was similar to some of the stuff I planned to use in my other fics, but it strikes me as a good valentines story and my other storeies will have a different outcome anyway, so happy valentines day everyone and enjoy the story ;)

It was the lady from the coffee shop, the barista, she was standing next to me right now, her nose was red and she was shivering while she looked out at the snow and I found myself looking at her again. She'd always struck me as familiar, like someone I knew, but I'd never talked to her before, she didn't seem like the kind of person I'd know, or the kind of person you'd easily forget. Her hair was a mess of a ponytail, her thick glasses were cracked along the side, she always wore a slightly crazy looking smile on her face… I was curious about her for awhile, my few friends knew it, accused me of staring at her every time I went with them to the shop she worked at, the only reason I even went to the damn place that sold that subpar watered down coffee was because I was curious about her. Now here we both were standing under the same bus shelter to keep out of the snow.

Her hands were up at her face blowing on them to keep them warm… she had no gloves, her coat had holes in it, so did her boots now that I looked… What the hell was she doing with her money that she didn't take care of herself this much? She was visibly shivering enough to make me feel cold through my coat scarf and gloves, all cold resistant I might add, being a lawyer had the perks of being able to buy these kind of nice things… I'd come far from the orphanage I grew up in, yet here this barista was still looking borderline homeless.

I found myself taking off my scarf before it even fully registered, "Here." I held it out to her only looking at her from the side of my eyes.

"You're… giving me this?" She asked hesitantly.

"You're making me cold just looking at you." I huffed jerking it towards her again. She smiled and took it.

"Thanks," she smirked wrapping it around herself, she shivered less within a few moments, "You come to the coffee shop a lot right? I often take your orders, you usually order under Levi right? Is that your name?" She asked turning to face me now. I was surprised she'd paid that much attention to me.

"Yeah." I nodded, unsure what else I could say. She nodded back with a little smile.

"I'm Hanji, well Zoe actually but everyone calls me Hanji." She laughed lightheartedly and held out her hand towards me, I shook it. She had a firm grip, I wished I wasn't wearing the damn gloves at that moment though.

I looked up at her, she was a bit taller than me, "Your glasses are foggy." that was the first thing that came to mind to say and it flew out of my mouth cooly, even though I hadn't meant to say it at all.

"Haha." She laughed, clearly not offended by my bluntness, "This weather makes them fog easily, I swear I've been wiping them all day." she snickered removing the glasses from her face a moment and wiping them on my scarf… I tried not to call that action dirty and somehow repressed it.

Her cold hands stiffly pulled her glasses from her face and she looked over to me, with a smile like she was about to say something and then she stopped, her smile fell away and she looked at me confused and frozen in place. I stared at her the same way, frozen… I think it was the first time we met eyes, because it was the first time I remembered feeling this way, meeting eyes with her made my heart ache and my stomach turn and pull into knots. I heard her glasses hit the side walk and she walked to stand in front of me, still looking awfully confused.

"I'm sorry," She stammered shaking her head her brows pulled together, "I feel like… Like I know you from somewhere, like it's importan-" she leaned in closer as she spoke and something clicked between us, I jumped back a bit, and she did the same as if we were both shocked by lightening. My mind felt fuzzy, the bus stop, the snow, the sounds of the city, they all went away, they were replaced by a simple wooden room, the only thing that remained the same were the wide brown eyes that I'd been staring at-

-
The memory
-

She would be the death of me. Brown eyes, brown sympathetic eyes. I can hardly see them even though I'm looking right at them , but still, those eyes manages to look right through me. It was impossible for her to exist in front of me, but here she was, staring me down, holding her hand against my cheek; gentle, warm, impossible. I can't tear my eyes away from her.

I wish she wasn't seeing me like this, my stomach felt sick, I was in a daze, I was resisting the urge to scream, resting the urge to yell and ask her how many people would have to die? How many people would die by my hands? When had killing and torture become normal? Why only after all of this time was it starting to bother me that I had to hurt others in order to achieve my goal? If peace came, would I become the enemy of humanity because I wasn't normal anymore? I needed answers, but I knew she asked those same questions herself.

The light from the flickering candle on my desk reflected off of her glasses, but even still, behind it, I saw the one thing that in this twisted world of lies, was real. Those brown orbs were a shock to the system, they reminded me I was real, they saw this reality, my reality and still looked at me so dammed kindly that it made hurt.

My shaking hands fumbled as they found their way to those dammed crooked glasses she always wore. I pulled them from her face so clumsily that anyone who saw that might have doubted that I was even humanity's strongest soldier.

Those eyes closed a moment, I waited, impatient to see them open again, I'd seen to many eyes close for good today. Then they opened, and she smiled, a crooked gentle smile as she reached out and took me by the arm, pulling me to stand up. We stood, she began pulling me and I followed her, I didn't particularly care were we went anymore, anywhere was fine with me, I just didn't ant to be apart from her right now. I needed her to keep me from losing my dammed mind.

She knew me too well. She'd brought me to a bathhouse, the place she knew always calmed me down when I was like this. Titles fell away easily here. We were not commanders, soldiers, not anything but a man and a woman. The room was silent except for the sound of her filling the bathtub. She turned back, looked at me expectantly and waited for me to walk over.

I didn't need any words, this was a norm when there was a hard mission, she was often busy, but if she saw me struggling, she'd always come and make a hot bath for me, talk with me, keep me sane. As I sunk down into the hot water, eyes closed, grateful for this, I wondered if I'd ever thanked her properly.

She stood behind me, her hands scrubbing my hair with shampoo, it felt nice. I sighed.

"Relax, you had a long day." I heard the concern in her voice, I was sure she had a long hard day too, yet here she was, using such a gentle tone that few were lucky enough to hear from her. Her hands gently scrubbed at my scalp, I was sure it felt good, but my mind was too busy to feel it, my mind was still on all of the bloody faces I'd seen today, ones with their eyes shut because of me… so many eyes would never open again because of me…. I leaned my head back on the edge of the tub and her lips met my own, chaste and fleeting. Only now did I open my eyes to see her face, but they didn't stay open long as I pulled her face down to kiss her again.

"Get in." I mumble quietly against her lips, my hands pulling at her.

"Wait, I'm still dressed." She chuckles against my lips now, trying not to break the kiss.

"Not for long." I smirk lazily.

It was a long time before we actually left the tub, the water went cold, we got out shivering and wrinkled, but at least for me, I felt alive again. She was like a shot of good alcohol, she make my blood hot, my senses flare, she made all the pain go away just by being there, but she was better, there was no hangover with her. She managed to talk me out of my slump in the bathroom, somewhere between her mumbling my name over and over, it was the same thing I'd do for her, that's just the way it was; we had each others backs.

We flopped back into my bed, both wrapped in towels, she was giving me that big goofy grin she got when she had a good day in the lab.

"What's with that smile?" I asked lightly, "Did you have a breakthrough in your research today?" she shook her head in reply before turning on her side and propping herself up on her arm to look at me better.

"Nah, that's not it… I'm just.. Happy right now, to be here, with you." She paused, "I really was hesitant at first about this but… I'm glad I followed my gut." she smiled again leaning in to kiss me lightly. I wrapped her in my arms and held her close. It was… nice to hear that. I'd felt the same way after all.

Our relationship started as a heat of the moment kind of thing. We were on a mission, we were in a tight spot, stuck together, hiding from a few titans that tracked us down, our team was too far away to get to us at the time. I suggested that we just take out as many as we could before they got us, she agreed, told me there was no way out anyways, may as well leave a few less for the others to deal with. Then she reached over grabbed my collar roughly and kissed me, told me she'd always wondered what kissing be would be like and that she was happy she met me. It should have caught me off guard, but it didn't… I reached out and kissed her back, told her the feeling was mutual. Ironically our team showed up right after that and saved our asses… But what we'd said couldn't be taken back at that point and when we arrived back at the base, we decided to just see where things would go, I never thought that things with us would have gotten so serious.

Romance was something I never gave a shit about, 'love' and romance, I never understood it, I never cared for it, but with her… it felt right. I didn't have to try and be romantic and buy flowers and crap, or tell her how pretty she was. I still told her she smelled bad when she forgot to shower, I still talked the same with her, but it was fine, because we understood each other.

"I'm surprised Erwin isn't up our asses about this though, I'm sure he knows, he notices everything." I stroked her hair back lazily as I spoke.

"So long as we're not too obvious, I don't think he'd say anything. We don't let it affect work after all. We still have the same goal still after all: Eliminate the titans, and fight for humanity." the way she said it, I was sure she was trying to convince herself this as well.

"You're right." I nodded in agreement. The stress of the day and sorrow drowned away in those brown eyes of hers and relief and comfort took it's place. I never knew how she was able to do that. I held her closer now hoping she was right when she said Erwin would keep turning a blind eye on us, because trying to sneak around behind his back would be annoying… Not impossible though. In my mind I nearly laughed at the thought that I didn't even think twice about sneaking around behind Erwin's back, just to be with her. I held my gaze on her, as I thought how strange it was that she'd become so important to me.

"Ne, Levi, why are you staring at me? You're going to put a hole in my forehead" She chuckled rubbing her forehead, but she pouted when I didn't reply, "Levi what are yo-" I kissed her before she could finish speaking.

"...I love you." I said it and her eyebrows jumped up so high I was sure they might have left her face for a moment. Though I was just as shocked that I'd said it as she was, I'd never said it before, I didn't even think about it before, but when I said it, I knew I meant it.

"I love you too." a soft smile spread across her face, her cheeks red.

"Marry me." She snorted, but when she looked back at me, it seemed to dawn on her that I was dead serious.

"M-married?" She sputtered in a rushed whisper, "B-but I'm me! Besides, that's moving kind of fas-"

"Hanji." I took her hands in my own and looked straight at her, "I know who you are, and I love you. You love me too. Isn't that why people get married?" I actually wasn't too sure why other people got married, but, "This world in these walls is shitty, I've always wanted to live on the outside, with fresh air, and now I'd like you to be there too. That's a future I wouldn't mind fighting for." I squeezed her hand and waited for a response, but all I got was a blank stare. Oh shit, did I mess it up?

"That sounds nice." she said, her face suddenly split into a smile.

"Good, but next time answer faster, I almost shit myself thinking you'd say no." I huffed.

"Sorry, sorry, I was just thinking, I mean it's not like Erwin would be okay with us getting married," She pouted, "And we still have a responsibility to the other soldiers. Stepping down just to try and be happy on our own would be betraying everyone, and then there's the titans-"

"I know." I sighed, it was annoying, but I knew we couldn't get married right away anyway. Even if we married in secret, it would be trouble, as long as things were the way they were, we couldn't marry…

"Hey." She stroked my cheek, picking up on my irritation, "That just means we'll have to make sure we get rid of every last one of those titans." she smiled, brown eyes bright, and all of my concerns melted away.

"Right." the foreign feeling of a smile came over my face as I reply, though since I'd been with her, the feeling of a smile was becoming less and less foreign, "Until then," I leaned down now, kissing her deeply on the mouth. She kissed me back, my hand landed on her waste, slid down her thigh, and she laughed against my lips.

"Oi! You wanna do it again? But in the tub we just-" I kissed her again, deeper now, I trailed kisses from her lips to her collarbone and she let out a low moan, "Levi!" She hummed, her tone different now as she pressed herself against me, "Fine, but I still want to go look over some things for my pre-mission meeting tomorrow and then research some-"

"You work too much, Shitty glasses, we both know you know your plans inside and out, and research can wait." I smirked rolling on top of her, "You're mine tonight."
-

"Ahhh, I'm supposed to be at a meeting with my team!" She darted around the room putting on her pants that morning, "We're going outside of the wall to get some herbs for a new compound I'm working on!" she explained to me for what must have been the tenth time this week as she looked around the room, "This is why I hate sleep, it's so disorienting." She huffed, messily tying up her hair.

"You're disoriented no matter what." I replied dryly, getting out of bed to hand her her shirt.

"Hey, you said you wanted to marry this disoriented per on the other night." She scowled, taking the shirt from me and pausing her rush to look at me a moment.

I shrugged, "I do. So?"

She smiled that smile that made me smile back, the bright excited one that she usually only got over work, "I just wanted to hear you say it again."

"Weirdo."

"Hehe, you too, Short ass." she pulled on her jacket, "I really am late though," she fretted, rushing over to the door, "Oh!" She yipped as she made it to the doorway before running back over and lunging over to place a kiss on my cheek, "I'll see you as soon as I get back." Her eyes smiled bright behind her goggles as she spoke, and I nodded at her with a smile before watching her dash out of the door, closing it behind her.

The smile wouldn't leave my face minutes after she was gone. Being this happy was unreal, and it was all thanks to her. I had some spare time, I had no major missions today. The night before I did propose to her after all, and she did accept. The only proper thing I could do now, was buy her a ring. I had some money put aside, I didn't buy much anyway, so I could afford something nice for her, something simple that she wouldn't dirty up, but still nice enough. She probably wouldn't be able to actually wear the ring, no one could know she was engaged, but she could at least have it with her, she could at least know she was engaged in private an have proof of my word, even if she only carried it in her pocket, "As soon as she get's back." I smile to myself. She'd be pretty surprised to see what I'd have for her, I actually couldn't wait to see her face when she saw the ring.
-

I knocked on his door and waited for a reply. Hanji'd said she's see me when she got back, so where was she? I'd definitely seen her team arrive, I'd checked her room and it was empty, the lab was empty as well, and there weren't any other places she would be. I pushed back the worrying bubbling up in my stomach, and I walked down the hallway, ignoring the little voice in the back of my mind that suggested something bad might have happened, I was knocking on his door before I could even knew it.

"Come in." The voice on the other end of the door called slowly. I swung the door open , knowing that what I was thinking had to be wrong. All I needed to do was hear from Erwin was that she was fine and find out where she was, he usually knew where people were.

"Have you seen, Hanji?" I was speaking before the door was even fully open, but I needed the answer now.

Erwin's eyes were fixed on his desk, his fist pressed to his mouth before he looked up at me slowly, his eyes meeting mine with a dark look. I immediately knew that something was wrong.

"Where is she?" I asked storming towards him now, I had to be wrong. She was fine right? She was Hanji, she had to be fine, but Erwin was slow to give me an answer, "Erwin where is she?" My voice came with an edge now, it took all I had not to grab him by the collar and drag him across the desk to get my answer.

"While Hanji and her team were outside of the walls things were gong well, I was busy overseeing everything and she was collecting plants," Erwin sighed, looking down again, "We were pulling out when 5 abnormal titans appeared, one of them snatched up Moblit." my heart sunk, that was a shame, I knew how much Hanji cared for Molbit, she must have been somewhere tucked away and crying her eyes out over the loss of her friend. I turned and started to leave, thinking of everywhere she might have been hiding alone and sad when Erwin spoke again, "Hanji saved him." I froze now, my blood ran cold, "Hanji pulled him free but… she got snatched in the process… She ordered her team to get away so they could live, and the titan that snatched her kept running, it didn't even eat her. Her team and I tried to chase it down, but we lost track of it." No, no this had to be a lie, she couldn't be gone. ".She wasn't recovered, neither were her belongings." This was a joke right? It wasn't funny, "I'm sorry." Erwin hung his head, his face was pale. His apology wasn't enough for me… I was seeing red.

"Levi!" I heard Erwin's chair scrape across the wooden floor as he got up to chase after me as I stormed from the room, "You are not going out there alone!" He yelled from behind me as I ran towards the supply room.

"I don't believe she'd dead, I won't be able to focus on anything until I know she's okay." I said with a warning tone, throwing the door to the supply room open, grabbing everything I thought I needed in a hurry.

"Levi, you'll die!" He warned, "Going alone is a death mission!" Erwin insisted, trying to hold me back, but I shook him off.

"I'll go with him." A cool voice called from behind us. I spun around and behind us, Mikasa stood looking over vaguely interested.

"Stay out of this." I snapped.

"Yeah, Mikasa, I don't think it's a good idea to go after him!" Eren warned grabbing her arm, as Armin nodded along behind them.

"You helped me before, when we fought the female titan, I almost died doing something stupid. You saved me." She stood a little straighter, "If you're going to do something stupid, I'll make sure I do what you did for me; stop you."

For a moment, everyone was silent, until I nodded, "I don't care what you do, just stay out of my way." I hissed storming for the exit, no one protested again, but I heard footsteps behind me. She followed.
-

"HANJI!" my eyes scanned the land. I'd gone to where Erwin said she was last seen, apparently they followed the titans right up to a flat land, it was easy to see across except for the few houses scattered over the land, but I couldn't see anything that belonged to her, I saw nothing indicating where she might be. Mikasa was looking through some of the nearby buildings, but I could hardly remember she was there, as I scanned the land, "HANJIIIIII!" My throat was dry and ragged from yelling, we'd been out there for hours and we still couldn't find her. I felt like I was losing my mind. I had to find her, I needed to know she was okay, just yesterday she told me she'd marry me, the ring was heavy in my pocket now, there as no way she was dead, Hanji survived no matter what, she had to!

"Hanji, where are you?" I muttered to myself, checking yet another building, looking room to room, for any signs of her when I saw it, a pair of cracked goggles on the floor of an old abandoned home.

I could feel my eyes go wide, I was sure they might fall out of my head, as I ran over to the goggles and picked them up. I held them in my hands and flipped them over. Her name was messily scribbled on the inside. This was not happening. I looked up to find a trail of blood near the goggles leading further into the house.

Numbly, I got to my feet, the goggles clutched tight in my hands as I followed the trail. Even if at the end of that trail was a titan, was a fight, I didn't care, there was a chance she was just hurt, maybe her glasses were knocked loose. If that was the case she was somewhere half blind, she needed me, therefore I needed to find her, I had to help her. I found my way to the end of the trail… and the sick feeling in my stomach turned there was a clunk as the googles fell from my hand and tumbled to the floor, I turned and threw up. I'd found her.

She was on the floor in a spot where the roof had been missing, her eyes were fixed up on the light coming in through the gap in the ceiling, her mouth was turned up in a contented smile, but she didn't move. Her right arm, the one she'd always been scribbling her notes with was clean gone, along with most of her right leg. There was no fear on her face, but that smile was there, eyes fixed up on the light pouring in from the rooftop as the light shone down on her.

"Hanji." I called dumbly, wiping my mouth with my sleeve, all ideas of cleanliness gone, "Hanji, you can't be doing this to me." A thunk echoed through the house as I fell to my knees next to what was left of her, "Stop this Hanji, there's research for you, to do, we have to get rid of the titans remember? Then, we'd be free to get married and have a bunch of dammed brats of our own an-" My voice caught, something hot rolled down my cheek and plopped down onto her face, but her expression didn't change, that same blank stare looked up at me, past me. Those eyes just the other day looked so kindly at me, but now there was nothing, no light in them… Nothing.

I yelled at the top of my lungs, punching the ground with all that I had. How could the titans leave her like this? They didn't even put her out of her misery! They bit her, tasted her and left her here to die! How long did she bleed out on the floor? How much pain did she have to endure? No one was even there to comfort her, and she still died with a smile on her face. Something in me snapped, my reason, my common sense, my goal, I forgot them all in that moment. None of that crap would bring her back, but I could at least get my revenge.

"You found her?" A voice called from behind me, there was a pause as she took in the scene, "I'm sorry." Mikasa bowed her head in silence for a moment.

"You should go back." My voice was dark.

"Erwin will be angry if you don't come back now." I could hear her take a step closer, "I said I'd stop you of you tried to do something stupid, Do I really have to tell you that this is stupid?"

"Tell him I'm dead." I replied in the same tone, my back turned to her as I closed Hanji's eyes. I felt dead after all.

"Dead?" Mikasa asked mildly alarmed. I sighed. At least it was her that came along and not that Eren, brat. I knew how Mikasa felt for Eren, what she'd do if she'd seen him like this, she would understand where I was coming from at least.

"If this was Eren here, left for dead, gnawed in half, what would you do? He was your reason for even joining the Scouting Troops right?" I called over my shoulder. I was entirely prepared to leave, damn whatever waited for me in the Scouting Troops. Erwin might have needed a right hand man, but he should have thought of that more when he'd messed up and let Hanji died. Had Erwin looked a little harder, Hanji at the very least would not have died alone. I was very sure that I never could have worked with Erwin again, not well anyways, there was only one thing I could do from here on out…

"I understand." Mikasa said from behind me. She said nothing more as I heard her footsteps grow fainter and fainter until they all together disappeared.

I closed my eyes a moment. This was a turning point, I was no longer the person from before. Following orders got me nothing, not enough work got done, it didn't protect the people I wanted to protect the most, and I was tired of it. This time, I was going to take the titans head on. For what they'd done, I would wipe them all out, myself, and I dared anyone to stop me.

-

A while later I stood staring down at my handy work. I'd given Hanji what I could of a proper grave, dug a spot for what was left of her with a shovel I'd found in an abandoned home. This was really my last goodbye to her, but I couldn't even cry, I stared at the spot where she was in more pain then I could even think to express as it really hit me that she was gone. I unwrapped my cravat from my neck, tied it to a stick and stuck it at the spot, I slipped the ring I'd bought for her in town over the tip of the stick and looked down at the spot for a moment..

"Hanji... I'll get them all, or see you soon trying." I muttered, before turning and walking into the sunset, a new goal in mind.

-
Back to The present
-

I felt a physical shock as I was shot back into reality, the eyes that I swore I'd closed were staring at me now, brimming over with tears. My own vision was foggy, I blinked and could feel tears forming in my own eyes, I covered my mouth and turned away from her… all I could do from reaching out and holding her to me, from reaching out and kissing her… The feelings from that vision or whatever the hell that was still lingered and she was definitely the same person, she even had the same name! It was hard for me to remember now that this person was a stranger to me… Had she seen what I'd just seen? The shock in her eyes as she looked at me suggested she'd seen something similar.

"I'm so sorry." She choked out taking a step back from me herself now, there was a crunch, she'd stepped on her glasses that she'd dropped a bit earlier. She jumped at the sound and frowned as looked down at her shattered glasses, she started to turn away from me, to look at them, but I caught her wrist, not wanting to lose sight of those eyes right now.

"Hanji," the name came from my mouth so naturally it felt like I'd said it a thousand times, I wanted to say it over and over, I regretted not being able to say the name all of this time, "Hanji, what are you apologizing for?"

"Y-you came looking for me? I didn't… I died and you came looking for me, the look on your face-!" She stammered, "I'm sorry I died, okay? I wanted to save my team and I couldn't think of any other way, I just wanted everyone to be safe and I got reckless as usual." a tear ran down her cheek, "I was smiling because I thought you'd be yelling at me if you knew how reckless I'd been… I was smiling because the only way I could bear the pain was to think about you… I remember now…" her voice was shaking, "How is this even possible?" Her hand was on her forehead and she spoke in udder shock.

I wasn't sure what to say… this person was a stranger seconds ago, I'd always been curious about her, but it didn't change that she was a stranger until now and now it felt like this stranger was the most important person in the world to me, more important than everyone I'd known up to this point, more important than myself. It was crazy but I'd been described as crazy a few times anyway.

"It's not your fault." I took a chance and pulled her to me, held her close, she held me closer and I let out a breath, feeling right for the first time since I could remember. This wasn't a stranger anymore, this person had been my fiancé once, I knew her habits, her likes, her dislikes, what made her laugh, or cry, I knew it, I knew she was passionate, I knew now why she looked like a borderline hobo, I knew whatever she was doing in this life she was sacrificing her sanity for it, and why even holding her now, her scent wasn't exactly feminine and pleasant, but that was Hanji. That was my Hanji, "Moblit should have run faster." I pat her back and she laughed through the tears into my shoulder.

"I missed you." she mumbled, it didn't make sense to say, but I knew what she meant. I didn't know that up to this point I'd missed her, but now that I was holding her to me, I knew how much I missed her, I missed her so much it hurt, so much I didn't want to ever let go again. All this time it felt like something was missing, the days I would randomly wake up and expect to see someone next to me made sense, the lonely feeling that would pass me randomly… It was because all this time she wasn't there.

"I missed you too." I hummed into my scarf that I'd wrapped around her.

The sound of a horn beeping pulled me from the moment, "HANJI ISN'T THAT THE GUY YOU'RE ALWAYS STARING AT IN THE CAFE?! WHY'RE YOU HUGGING?!" A loud voice called out from behind us. She pulled away a bit and as did I, we only held to each others forearms as we turned to see who'd called out. It was a small blonde woman with short cut hair and a large man with thick bangs and a mustache calling Hanji from a car from across the street.

I watched as Hanji smiled, "You guys showed up so late!" She laughed wiping the tears from her face with one hand.

"No we didn't, we've been calling you for the past ten minutes but you two were staring at each other, so you didn't hear me, and then I wasn't sure what to say when you guys started hugging, you sure move fast Hanji!" The woman chuckled, "You still need that ride, or are you riding with him?" she asked wiggling an eyebrow.

"I'll take care of her." I answered before Hanji could.

"Oh? Okay, but if something happens to Hanji, I know where to find you, your assistant, Petra, she dropped your card in the box for free coffee's for your business awhile back, finding you won't be hard if you hurt our Hanji." The woman warned narrowing her eyes at me, the man behind her nodded.

"Nanaba! I'll be fine!" Hanji insisted with a smile.

"If you say so," Nanaba smirked back, "Alright, Mike and I are heading back, be safe and don't do anything I wouldn't do." Nanaba winked before pulling off.

Hanji turned to look at me with an apologetic look, "Sorry." she laughed.

"Don't be." I took her hand, the one that had been missing in the vision and I held it tight in my own, "You need a ride home? Or is there somewhere else you want to go?" I asked. It was the gentleman thing to do right? Give her a ride home rather than ask her to come with me to my apartment, even though I wanted to catch up with her, get to learn her all over again, and make up for missed time.

"Actually, do you mind if I come with you? If you're busy it's fine, but I'm just curious, what you do now, what you like in this world and all." I was glad she'd said that. It was exactly what I'd been thinking.

"Good." I squeezed her hand with a smile and she smiled back as we headed for my car and back to my place.

We spent the rest of the night catching up for lost time in all sorts of ways, we mostly sat up talking though. She talked as much as she always used to, just as energetic, she was in my memories that flashed back more and more as we were together now. I remember being agitated by her talking sometimes, I enjoyed it more now, everything she said was interesting because she was alive and here, she wasn't in the ground. She remembered the tea I liked and asked if i still liked it; I did. At some point she'd talked herself tired and fell asleep in the couch, I carried her back to my room and she woke up just as I placed her on the bed and started to leave to sleep on the couch.

"I'm glad I found you again." She mumbled half awake, "I felt like something was missing all this time, I guess it was you." She smiled tiredly, "Can't believe I lived 25 years without seeing you, you won't disappear right?" She asked groggily, stroking my face with her hand, her brown eyes half open as she waited for my answer.

"No." I replied simply, pressing my forehead to hers, "I won't go anywhere, I promise." Her head tilted up, our lips met, only for a moment, but I could feel the significance of it, it was the seal of a silent promise.

"Sorry I left you the first time, it won't happen again, even if you wanted it to." She smirked up at me, arms slipped around my neck.

"Tch… It'll be a cold day in hell when I want you gone, Four Eyes." I laughed lightly hooking my arms around her waist.

I never did make it to the couch to sleep… And that cold day in hell, never came around, not once in the years that we spent together, and every morning that I looked over to see her face next to me, or saw the glittering of the gold ring that she wore on her finger, I was glad that cold day in hell never came.

Like I said, I wrote this forever ago and forgot about it, originally it wasn't a memory, it ended with Levi going off to face his own death, but I was not okay with that when I read over it later so I added the future stuff in and now my heart is melting and ugh… Anyway, I think this was the first one-shot I've ever done so it's a little long I think, idk. Hope you liked it.